HARARE, (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s new unity government is broke and cannot meet union demands for higher wages, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said yesterday.
Addressing a May Day rally, Tsvangirai said the government he formed with veteran President Robert Mugabe in February to try to end a political and economic crisis that has brought Zimbabwe to ruin would maintain the current $100 it is paying its workers a month.
“This government is broke, and we are only able to pay the $100 allowance, but when things improve, we want this allowance to graduate into a proper salary,” he said.
“For now, everyone, all of us, including President Mugabe, is getting $100,” he added.The unity government has appealed for billions of dollars from the West to help revive Zimbabwe’s shattered economy, but Western donors such as Britain want to see further progress in implementing a power-sharing agreement before considering large-scale aid for the shattered country.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who held talks in London on Thursday with Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Africa Minister Mark Malloch-Brown, said his country was receiving $400 million in credit lines from African states to revive its ailing industry.
Although the funds from African states may help, Zimbabwe is in dire need of aid from Western donors, who have demanded broad economic and political reforms, including ending a new wave of farm invasions targeting the few remaining white farmers.
